This invention is related to the field of refuse collection, and more specifically, directed to the collection of refuse from a curbside location by a single-person refuse collection vehicle.
Many communities have now instigated trash collection procedure wherein the residents are required to place standardized refuse containers at the curbside. As such, a need arises to provide a mobile refuse collection vehicle that is capable of grasping, elevating, and dumping the containers into the vehicle and then returning the empty container to the curbside location, all of which can be done while the vehicle operator remains in the driving position. Once the refuse vehicle is loaded, it is taken to a dump, landfill or recycling center. The collection process may be complicated by the placement of the refuse container relative to the curbside, the accessabilty from the street, and the ability to accomplish the collection process in a relatively limited space. For example, making pick-ups between parked vehicles, trees, in narrow alleys or other objects which would ordinarily inhibit the side loading process.
A variety of mechanisms have been proposed for efficiently emptying trash containers into a collection vehicle; and as such, the previous designs have resorted to innumerable mechanical arrangements. Apparatus have been disclosed wherein trash containers are lifted from the ground and dumped into collection vehicles or into a collection vehicle with lifting mechanisms that have raised the trash container over the side, the front, or back of the vehicle. Many of these mechanisms have used complex mechanical chains, sprockets, cams, cables and hydraulic power cylinder/piston lifts to accomplish the curbside collection process. Some even require additional personnel to assist in seeing that the container is loaded and unloaded correctly at the curbside. A great majority of the prior inward/outward mechanisms operate by power supplied from the under carriage of the refuse receiving vehicle to a vertical mast and are thus susceptible to road hazards and damage.
Exemplary of such prior art disclosures are those found in the following United states patents:
______________________________________ 4,313,707 3,910,434 4,057,156 4,427,333 RE 34,292 5,092,731 4,005,791 3,944,092 ______________________________________
Other limitations and safeguards must be considered in the operation of a refuse collection vehicle of this type when considering its various phases of highway travel, curbside collection, compaction, and dumping of the compacted refuse.